


Sayaka Magica

by ArcherUmi



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Gen, Magical Girls, Unfinished, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 00:57:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20715449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcherUmi/pseuds/ArcherUmi
Summary: Sayaka Miki is an ordinary girl living in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. One night she has an odd dream about a red-haired girl, and the day after her ordinary life changes.Unfinished work, currently not likely to be continued.





	Sayaka Magica

**Author's Note:**

> This is an older work of mine, so it's quite rough. It's something I thought of when I briefly got back in to Madoka two years ago before losing interest in it again, partly because I started to rewatch the series (and then found it was still really hard emotionally for me to deal with). Written October 2017. 
> 
> This was intended as a multi-chapter fic, but in the end I never got any further than writing one slightly rough chapter and getting an outline down before I pretty much lost interest in the idea. I toyed with going back to it but never planned to post it here unless I did. But, apparently September 20th is Sayaka's fanon birthday and I haven't been writing anything for a week or two now, so I figured I may as well put it up. If I ever do get back to it, I'll likely redo the first chapter as well because I could definitely do better nowadays. It could use a better title too, really.

The girl leapt backwards out of the path of the spearhead, the chain-linked shaft coiling behind it like a scorpion's tail, the purple and golden sky reflected on it as it crashed and buried itself in the ground. She somersaulted backwards, her white cape billowing around her, before she hit the water, plunging into the river. She closed her eyes, tightly grasping her sword in her right hand, and held out her left in front of her. She spoke, somehow, but couldn't understand the words. "_Uisce Céim_!". 

She felt the water under her push her up. She shifted her weight forward and rode the column upwards, shooting up out of the river, silhouetted against the underside of an airplane roaring into the evening sky behind her. She focused her eyes on her adversary, another girl about her age, her long red hair and red tunic waving violently in a gust of wind. The red-haired girl yanked on the handle of her spear, dislodging the tip from the earth and pulling the segmented shaft together.

"There's no need for you to fight her; let's withdraw!". Floating above the riverbank she glanced aside at the small animal, sitting on the roof of a building. "If she wants to fight... I'm not going to lose to her or run away, ever!". She closed her eyes, breathing deeply. "_I riocht is go bhfaighidh mo focail leat_...", she held her sword with both hands, turning it so its cutting edge faced up, tip aimed at the other girl. She released a safety and pulled the trigger. 

"_Síon Lann_!". With a flash and a burst of steam, the blade launched from the hilt. The spent cartridge ejected from the chamber, and she swiftly retrieved a fresh cartridge from her cloak and inserted it, liquid metal flowing from the hilt and forming a new blade. As it flew, the blade exploded, blanketing the riverbank in a storm of ice needles.  
_____

The girl jolted up, in her ordinary bed and ordinary room. "...A dream?". Her memory of it was already faded. "Gah, a weird one too!". She glanced at the alarm clock on her nightstand. "Aagh, I can't believe I woke up early all because of a stupid dream like that!". She reluctantly pulled herself out of bed to get ready for school, pulling on her uniform, combing her hair, and affixing a small golden clip in her hair. She yawned and opened the bedroom door, making her way down the hall to brush her teeth.

"Ah, good morning Sayaka; you're up early today."

"Good morning mom". Sayaka straightened her hairpin again in the bathroom mirror. "Yeah, I guess. I'll actually have time to eat breakfast before I leave for school". She struck a pose. "Alright! I'm feeling good about today!". She ran back to her room to grab her bag and dashed down the stairs to the dining room. She yawned as she took a plate and sat down, scooping up a fried egg and slice of tomato from the serving platter and grabbing a slice of toast.

"Good morning Sayaka". She took a bite of her breakast. "Good morning dad". Her father flipped through the pages of his newspaper. She caught a glance of one of the headlines, something about a case of amnesia in Shinjuku. "Be sure to thank Madoka-chan for the tomatos again for me; they're delicious."

"Yeah, I will. Madoka's dad is really good at gardening, huh?". She finished off her toast and slung her bag over her shoulder. "I better get going". Sayaka stood up, stretching her arms. She set her plate down in the sink and headed out the door. "See you later!". She took a more leisurely pace walking to school today, enjoying having the time to spare.

"Good morning Sayaka-san!". She turned around and paused. "Oh, good morning Hitomi! Heh, for once I'm not the one catching up with you, huh?". Hitomi smiled. "And Madoka-san is still last". Sayaka giggled. "Hehe, naturally".

"Hitomi-chan! Sayaka-chan!". Sayaka and Hitomi smiled. "There she is, huh? Good morning!". Sayaka looked her over. "Back to your usual ribbons, huh Madoka?". Madoka put her hand behind her head, looking a little embarrassed. "Y-Yeah... The other ones just felt too flashy and it wasn't really me". The three girls started walking and Madoka sighed. "I've been feeling like someone was watching me in class... Is that crazy?".

"Do you think it's that transfer student, Madoka-san?", Hitomi offered. 

"If there's that kind of creep I'll take care of them!". Sayaka grinned. "After all, Madoka is all mine!". Madoka just looked more embarrassed and Hitomi rolled her eyes. "Uh, T-Thanks, Sayaka-chan..."  
_____

Sayaka yawned as she stepped out of the classroom. "Hey, Madoka, wanna stop and eat somewhere again?". Madoka shook her head. "I don't really feel like it today, and Hitomi-chan couldn't anyway. She has piano lessons tonight". Sayaka shrugged. "Ah well... Oh geeze, I forgot my bag! I'll catch up with you, ok?". She dashed back into the classroom and retrieved her bag before walking out. 

She quickly caught back up with Madoka and Hitomi outside the school. "Hehe, sorry about that... Hey, anyway, did you figure out if it really was that transfer student girl who was leering at you Madoka? What's even her name again, anyway?". She shook her head. "No... I mean, I wasn't going to go up and ask her, so... She's Akemi Homura-chan, right?".

"Something like that sounds right, yeah. What is up with her anyway?! Lately she seems like she's trying some weird image change ditching the braids and glasses and acting all edgy". Soon enough the three of them came to an intersection. Sayaka turned and stretched her arms. "I'm going downtown today. See ya tomorrow!".

"Oh, you're visiting the hospital again today, Sayaka-chan?". She blushed a little at Madoka's question. "Heh, yeah, I guess". She waved and crossed the street to make her way to the station, climbing the stairs to the elevated platform and boarding a half-empty inbound train. Taking a seat, she plugged a pair of earbuds into her music player and pressed play, a gentle violin melody filling her ears. Sayaka closed her eyes, the fifteen minutes to Kawasaki Station seeming to pass even quicker.

Stepping off the train, she crossed the elevated pedestrian tunnel toward the shopping center. As she walked, she got a strange feeling she couldn't quite shake. Looking around, she saw no one else in the tunnel, and as she passed by the open air pedestrian deck the sky was completely dark.

Sayaka came to a stop, standing in the middle of the empty tunnel and pondering. "Was it this late already? Geeze, visting hours must be over already...". She glanced over her shoulder back towards the station. "Should I just go home?". She heard a small noise, and turned back to look at the pedestrian deck. A small animal walked into the light at the at the entrance from outside. 

"...A cat?". Squinting at it in the glare, she could make out a cat-like body with brown fur, short, rounded ears like a teddy bear, and a bushy tail curled at the end like a cartoon squirrel. She blinked a few times and turned around to leave.

"Miki Sayaka?".

She looked around but didn't see anyone. "A-Am I hearing things now? What the heck?!".

"Over here!". She turned again in the direction the voice was coming from, again seeing no one, except for the 'cat', which had walked into the tunnel and was now gazing up at her. "You're Miki Sayaka, right? I think you can help me with a big problem I have."

"D-Did you just talk?! H-How do you even know my name?!".

"Ah, pardon me, I should explain myself. I know this must be startling to you. Have a seat". Sayaka glanced down to see a cushion having appeared without explanation. The surroundings seemed to have changed as well, the pedestrian tunnel gone and replaced by a small, square room, empty except for her, the animal, the cushion, and four and a half tatami mats. Reluctantly she sat down. "I'm Nanabey, an angel. Ah, I suppose my official job would be 'incubator' but that doesn't sound nice, does it? I certainly don't like it. So just think of me as an angel, ok?".

"...What?". Sayaka was dumbfounded. Nanabey scratched her head with a front paw. "I guess it's a lot to take in. Well, to put it simply, I'm interested in recruiting you as a magical girl. You seem to have an important errand here, so I don't want to keep you any longer. Please remember this". Nanabey waved her paw and a series of numbers appeared in front of her. They circled around Sayaka and dissipated in front of her face. "If you're interested at all, you can reach me at this phone number. If not, please just consider this another weird dream, ok, Miki Sayaka? Oh, and if you are interested, just also keep in mind that this job could be quite dangerous."

"Another... Hey, wait, what the hell, you can't just leave after saying so much weird stuff!...".

"Are you alright, miss?". She suddenly found herself sitting up against the wall across from the entrance from the pedestrian deck. She looked up at the concerned station employee. "Y-Yeah... I guess I'm just tired". She stood up and looked out at the evening sky in the gateway across from her.

"Maybe I should get a coffee."  
_____

Sayaka dropped the empty plastic cup and hamburger wrapper in a trash bin and sighed, glancing across the front courtyard of the shopping center. "I need to get going...". Still feeling a little dazed, she crossed the courtyard and passed through a door on the righthand side. A few more doors and she found herself in a narrow alleyway between the shopping center and a nearby office building.

"Did I take a wrong turn somewhere?". She turned around to find the way she came choked by a curtain of thick vines with an otherworldy silvery green color. "...I-Is this another dream?". She reached out to pull the vines away.

"Miki Sayaka, don't touch that!". Before the words registered, she grasped hold of one of the vines, at first feeling cool and metallic in her hand. All of a sudden she felt a searing heat from the vine and a screeching noise echoed in her ears. 

"Aaaaggghh!". She shut her eyes tightly and leapt back in pain. When she opened them again, the vines now appeared to be made of a colorless, translucent, spectral substance. Terrified, she glanced down at her right hand, a line burnt across her palm. The 'vines' began thrashing at her and she starting to back away, but they continued lashing closer and closer. She looked over her shoulder, noticing Nanabey behind her.

"Hey, you again?! That so-called angel?! Can you tell me what the hell this is?!".

"Uh, basically it's a spectral being formed by peoples' frustrations and sorrows, so you can call it a ghost or spectre for short, if that makes sense! They can be very dangerous if left alone to grow and affect other people in the area... This one seems to be associated with a boy from your school, Kamijou Kyousuke-"

"K-Kyousuke?!". Sayaka stopped in her tracks even as the vines lashed their way towards her. "Hey, when you said something about magical girls and how you had a problem... Was this what you meant?".

"It is. But for now we-". Sayaka turned around. "Then I'm ready. How do I start?!".

"...Huh? Right now we just need to get out of here! You should think this through first, Miki Sayaka!".

"There's no time for that is there?! Come on, what do I need to do?!". She flinched and stifled a scream as one of the vines whipped at her leg, singeing the back of her sock.

Nanabey sighed. "I can't let you become a magical girl without you understanding exactly what that implies. It would be against the rules besides being wrong. So if you're going to be this way..." Nanabey raised her paw and made a circle in the air. The vines froze in place, and with another sweep of her paw the two of them were back in the same small room from before, although this time they were seated at a small table and Nanabey had summoned herself a cushion as well. "I've sealed it temporarily so we don't need to worry about it for now. So, since you are interested, let's go over your employment contract, ok? I've underlined the really key points here".

A piece of paper appeared on the table in front of Sayaka. "T-There's seriously paperwork to become a magical girl?! What the heck, that's not how it ever is in anime!". Nanabey rolled her eyes. "I take my job seriously, ok? I don't think you'd appreciate it if you didn't go over this and it turned out I'd, I dunno, ripped your soul out of your body or something...". She noticed Sayaka's expression had gone a bit blank. "N-Not like there's anything like that in there, you know!... Uh, sorry about scaring you, but this is a serious matter here. Be sure to read it carefully."

"It does say 'Heaven is not liable for any injury or death' though...".

"Of course there are risks, but it's not as bad as that makes it sound, ok?"

"Uh... Ok... 'Must remain a magical girl for a term of at least six months'. After that what happens?".

"After that you can retire at any time. It's just that it takes magical energy to create a magical girl, and it takes time for heaven to replenish that energy. Basically, and don't take this the wrong way, they want to get a return on their investment in you. Oh, and if you retire you can apply to be reinstated as well, although that's on a case-by-case basis."

"Ok. Anyway, it says payment is provided, but it doesn't say what it is?".

"Oh, it's gold! You see, humuan currencies change a lot, but humans always value gold. So you get paid 10 grams of gold every two weeks. I think that's about 39,440 yen!". 

"N-No way... That's almost a million yen a year!".

"Actually, it's a little more! Anyway, those are the main points to be aware of". Nanabey paused.

"So, now that you know what you'd be getting in to, again, if you aren't interested, you're free to leave. I'll transport you somewhere safe and you can forget all about this. And don't worry about that spectre; I know someone who can take care of it in a pinch if you choose not to. What will your decision be, Miki Sayaka?". Sayaka took a deep breath.

"It hasn't changed. I'm going to go through with this". Nanabey nodded. "I understand. All I need is a personal item of yours. That will become a talisman for your magical powers."

"Personal item?". She thought for a moment and then removed her hair clip, placing it on the table. "I'm ready". Nanabey waved her paw above the hairclip, a deep blue magic circle surrounding it, then dissipating. "That's it. The basics should come naturally. I'll tell you what to do after you transform."

Sayaka picked up the hairclip and stood up. "I'm releasing the seal now, Miki Sayaka. Get ready". The room shimmered like a mirage and faded away to reveal the alleyway. Sayaka held out her hand and tossed her hairclip up. As it fell, it glowed and changed shape into a fortissimo musical motif, and she caught it and swiftly clipped it back into her hair. In a burst of steam, her school uniform was replaced by a strapless white and blue top lined with golden thread, a deep blue pleated skirt, black detached sleeves, white gloves and long white socks, blue shoes, and a long white cape. In another burst of steam, a cutlass appeared in the air and she reached out and grabbed it, then spun around to face the spectre.

"Uummm... This outfit is a little, uh..."

"I can't do anything about that, for now just focus! First you need to weaken it and find its center!". Sayaka grasped her sword with both hands. "Alright, got it!". She slashed at a group of vines to her left, severing them, and leapt forward swinging, cutting a gap in the curtain of vines ahead of her. She sidestepped right to dodge a vine shooting forward and continued to push towards the back of the alley. "What am I looking for when you say 'center' exactly?!".

"It's there! Look up!". Sayaka glanced up at the glowing sphere several meters up on the office building wall, spectral vines spiraling down from it into the alley. She jumped and twisted her body in mid air, sweeping her sword around in a full circle and cutting down several more of the vines before landing. She lunged forward, swinging her leg up and planting her foot on the alley wall, dashing up. As she approached the spectre's core, she kicked and pushed off the wall, somersaulting backwards feet first and landing on the far wall. She reversed her momentum, jumping at the sphere, slashing across it with a swing of her sword.

"Ok, it should be weakened enough. Yell 'release' and cast the spell!". As she fell, Sayaka held out the palm of her right hand, sword hanging at her side in her left. "_Scaoil_!". The sphere squished and flattened as it fell in on itself, before it and the remaining vines dissipated into a cloud of shimmering particles like stardust. She held out her arms to either side of her body, softly landing on the pavement. Her costume shimmered, her clothes and hairclip turning back to normal, and her sword vanished in a puff of steam.

She panted, trying to catch her breath. "You did a good job, Miki Sayaka. Maybe it was a bit of overkill, but you did well for your first fight. I was fortunate to find you". Nanabey smiled and tilted her head. "Let's be partners from now on, ok?".  
_____

Sayaka took a deep breath as the elevator door opened and she walked down the corridor to Kyousuke's hospital room. She paused for a moment before knocking and entering. Kyousuke turned towards her as she walked in.

"Hey, Sayaka...". She noticed his expression seemed a little less distant and unhappy than the last few times she had visited him. "Hey, Kyousuke... Oh, I didn't bring another CD or anything this time... I hope that's ok...". He shook his head and smiled. "No... That's ok. I'm grateful for you visiting". She sat down in a chair next to his bed. "A-Any news, or...?". His expression got a bit more distant again. "It's still going to be at least a week before I can go home...". He looked down at his left hand. "And I won't be able to play again for a while after that."

"I-I'm just glad you'll be able to play again at all, after...". She trailed off. "S-Sorry, I shouldn't bring it back up again."

"It's fine, Sayaka. I'm grateful for that too". For a while she just sat, gazing at the side of his face, a slight blush on her face, before she tried to break the silence. "Aaagh, I miss when I'd always play baseball with you and your friends too!". Kyousuke laughed. "I'm glad you haven't changed at all, Sayaka."  
_____

The girl effortlessly dodged the snake-like spectre's lunging bite, dancing around the backalley illuminated only by the spectre itself and the neon glow of the entertainment district's signs, her long red hair swirling behind her. 

She swung her spear, it's chain-linked segments wrapping around the snake's body, and yanked hard, sending it crashing into a pile of garbage bags. She yanked again, snapping the spear back together, took a step back to line up her attack, and drove the tip of the spear into the snake's midsection and held it in place. With a screech, it burst apart, leaving only an incandescent stain across the garbage pile and a red strand of energy that circled her body before dissipating.

Her spear and red tunic shimmered and faded back into a muted green hoodie and denim blue shorts, and she sat down on a doorstep, the back of some nightclub or bar. She reached into a paper bag and grabbed an apple. She glanced at a figure in the shadows across from her. "Hey, ya want one?".

It walked forward into a slightly better lit spot in the alley, a cat-like creature with white fur, a long, bushy tail, cat ears, and two long, drooping appendages on its head, looking like something between an ear and a squid's tentacle. She tossed the apple, which the creature nibbled at, and retrieved another one for herself, biting into it and tearing a chunk of fruit off it.

"I've been monitoring this region and I found something today, Kyouko. Apparently there's a new magical girl in Kawasaki. She seems like she has the potential to be quite powerful, so she might try to muscle in on your turf someday. I thought that might concern you."

"Oh?". She grinned. "I'd be interested in paying her a visit. I'm getting bored of Shinjuku anyway lately". She grabbed her bag of apples and stood up. She looked up at the moon.

'Some other day, Momo', she thought to herself.

**Author's Note:**

> Sayaka was always my favorite character, and with how much she gets screwed over by life and how Madoka Magica is just too dark for me to handle well I wanted to give her a happier story. I wanted to take a bit of inspiration from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which was the magical girl anime I was really in to before Madoka and which (although it's very different in tone) is something of an antecedent to Madoka and shares the same director in Akiyuki Shinbo. I also thought about drawing on some of the conventions of shonen anime like Naruto and Bleach (though I don't think that really shows through at all here), sorta like Nanoha drew on a lot of conventions of mecha anime. Sayaka actually strikes me as a bit of a shonen protagonist type; heroic, upbeat, a bit of a goof-off (especially when it comes to book learning), and a bit pervy (in one of the audio CDs if I remember correctly she gets called out for going through Madoka's panties). 
> 
> One of the things I did as part of making it an alternate universe is change the setting from the ambiguous fictional city in the series to real-world suburban Tokyo, particularly as the very sparse, modernist aesthetic the series uses as a backdrop is part of what, to me, gives it a menacing ambience even in the first two episodes before things get _really_ fucked up. The use of a real setting, even an unfamiliar one, had some benefits in terms of planning and getting inspiration (the initial scene with Sayaka and Nanabey was largely inspired by the feel of panorama I found on Google Maps of the actual elevated pedestrian tunnel at Kawasaki Station) but was also challenging and required taking some artistic license (the alleyway the fight scene with the vine spectre takes place in doesn't really exist as far as I can tell from maps).
> 
> Using Irish for Sayaka's attack call-outs and her words to Kyouko was both another thing to distance this from the series' setting (in the manga I believe everyone uses Italian like Mami does), and also inspired a little by a Madoka fanfic I read a very long time ago. I can't remember if the Irish attack call-outs were just what an OC used or what, or what the fic was, but it stuck with me for some reason. I probably really mangled it since I don't speak Irish but I made an attempt.


End file.
